RPGWatch Feature: Silverfall Preview

February 18th, 2007, 23:31

With Silverfall on the horizon, Mike Anderson was able to spend some time with a press preview copy. What does Monte Cristo&#39;s offering in the inceasingly crowded action/RPG genre have to offer? Here&#39;s a snip:

Silverfall tells the story of the aftermath of the destruction of a city. Silverfall was overrun by hordes of undead, and you are one of the survivors in a newly founded camp. You start as a blank slate, choosing gender, race, name and some appearance characteristics and then starting on your way. Of course, you will not be allowed to huddle around a campfire hoping not to get chewed up by a zombie - you are expected to jump straight into action!

I played the demo and can say that I'm impressed for a Diablo-style action RPG.
There are even quests which don't require fighting.
Also the beasts are creative and quite fresh looking

One disappointment though - since the save system is implemented Diablo-style, it would be good to know what enemy you're facing - for instance if you meet a Tree Dragon, nothing tells you if the fight is impossible and you're going to die (if you die, you're transported to the town without your inventory, if you load - your save is also in the town but all creatures respawn). Then again - maybe there is some skill later which will tell me that

A town portal save system? Man, I hate that. I was gravitating towards getting this (depending on how quickly I get through Jade Empire) but I hate that crap. I don't really get why it's prevalent in hack'n'slash titles.

From their forum:
There will be a PVP and Cooperative Multiplayer modes

Originally Posted by Dhruin
A town portal save system? Man, I hate that. I was gravitating towards getting this (depending on how quickly I get through Jade Empire) but I hate that crap. I don't really get why it's prevalent in hack'n'slash titles.

I actually don't think that the town portal save system is that bad. You do not loose gold, levels or xp points when you die. You just - literarlly go home.

If you want to avoid that your items are gone when you die, you can do a little quest for man (or goblin sort of?) who has your trunk. When you have done this, you can pay him a fee (money) so that your you still have your items equipped om you when you return from the dead (literally). You can, of course, go to this man
and have a look at your trunk (storage area) and litterally dump stuff you don't need. (to be used further down the road in the game).

Personally, I prefer Silverfall's save game system i.e. death system over say the system used in Diablo 2, where you have to go find your corpse, and risk getting killed all over again. The system used in Silverfall puts your back in the town, and if you've remembered paying your insurance, you get the keep all your equipped items. (if you don't want to do this, just run to your tomb, click the tomb, and open the map, and click on the icons for towns, then you'll be instantly transported to the town of your choice).

As far as I can remember from playing the demo, there isn't any crafting or combining items; instead you choose between nature or technology. (meaning if you do quests for the e.g the smiths in the game, you nature tendency will rise,
and if you do quests for e.g. the druids, then your nature skill (points) will rise.
This means that you're unlocking some of the best items in the game, either nature or tech items.

My only sort of annoyance with Silverfall is that it doesn't have town portal spells.
(or scrolls) like in Diablo. You will really need these, as there are way too many monsters, since the monsters respawn all the time. This means that your inventory gets full the time. And while you can travel back to town any time you want, you can't transport back to the area where you were when you first transported back to town. Very annoying, imo.

Originally Posted by aries100
I actually don't think that the town portal save system is that bad. You do not loose gold, levels or xp points when you die. You just - literarlly go home.

Taking insurance is almost a necessity - otherwise you will have to return to where you died (assuming you make it through the respawned monsters) and deal with the monsters who killed you the first time, who are all still huddled around your grave.

But I like some feeling of 'death penalty', unlike Mage Knight, where you were never more than 15 seconds walk from your 'fully armed and ready' respawn.

Originally Posted by aries100
And while you can travel back to town any time you want, you can't transport back to the area where you were when you first transported back to town. Very annoying, imo.

That certainly is annoying, and I'm not sure if that will change before release.

Originally Posted by txa1265
But I like some feeling of 'death penalty', unlike Mage Knight, where you were never more than 15 seconds walk from your 'fully armed and ready' respawn.

i despise death penalties. i don't see why it would be so fricking difficult for ALL developers to give us the option of an 'easy death penalty'.

what do death penalties add to games? besides wasting my time and frustrating me. i can understand that some people want more of a challenge, but there are some of us who just want to enjoy the game in the short amount of gaming time we have left in our busy RL lives.

i personally enjoyed mage knight BECAUSE it had an easy death penalty. i could screw up and a minute or two later be back in the action, CONTINUING to enjoy the game.

i realize death penalties are to the benefit of MMORPG developers, as they have all the incentive in the world to get you to stay longer in game and pay more monthly fees while you're running around looking for your crap, but singleplayer games?? come on….

Originally Posted by araczynski
i don't see why it would be so fricking difficult for ALL developers to give us the option of an 'easy death penalty'.

Absolutely agree. I always prefer 'choice' - an option with no death penalty, up to one where you have a 'painful' death.

My personal fave is LEGO Star Wars - you explode into blocks, and some of your 'money' bounces off. If you are quick and diligent you can recover most if not all of it, otherwise you just let it go and rejoin the battle.

Originally Posted by aries100
I actually don't think that the town portal save system is that bad. You do not loose gold, levels or xp points when you die. You just - literarlly go home.

I still don't get what this actually adds to the game. I haven't actually played Silverfall, so bear with me if these comments don't apply.

This type of system killed Diablo 2 for me. Yes, I know I'm the only person on the planet who feels that way.

Start playing, find miniboss Bloodraven, kill Bloodraven (Yay!), 'phone rings so I quit for the night. Of course, I can't just save where I am - that would be too easy. Next day when I start it up I'm back in town, so after I trudge back again, Bloodraven has respawned. WTF?

That destroys any sense of the world and any feeling of an RPG, for me. I know these things are really action arcade games with a thin RPG wrapper but with the good ones, I can still feel part of a fantasy world (albeit a silly one with over the top combat). When it's all just "fake" arcade action and everything respawns and I always restart in town, I fee like I might as well go play Pacman.

And I don't get what it adds? These things are idiot-proof mass-market consumer-friendly…so why can't I save where I am instead of having to repeat stuff?

Originally Posted by Dhruin
Start playing, find miniboss Bloodraven, kill Bloodraven (Yay!), 'phone rings so I quit for the night. Of course, I can't just save where I am - that would be too easy. Next day when I start it up I'm back in town, so after I trudge back again, Bloodraven has respawned. WTF?

That destroys any sense of the world and any feeling of an RPG, for me. I know these things are really action arcade games with a thin RPG wrapper but with the good ones, I can still feel part of a fantasy world (albeit a silly one with over the top combat). When it's all just "fake" arcade action and everything respawns and I always restart in town, I fee like I might as well go play Pacman.

And I don't get what it adds? These things are idiot-proof mass-market consumer-friendly…so why can't I save where I am instead of having to repeat stuff?

You hit the head of the nail.

That was exactly what I thought.

This respawning (right spelled ?) is what utterly destroys the immersion in this game.

Thus, it dis-covers itself as a simple means to be a selling product. Muchos dineros, por favor, but no immersion, because that is not needed anyway.

I feel the need to buy it because if I don't, the suits will go for another MMO or WWII shooter or whatever else they have a glut of in the market. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with these games, it's just that rpg's are so few and far between and I want to support them if they have a decent game…even if it's not exactly what I want. I get loot, I kill stuff and tweak my stats and I'm happy. Shoot, I almost finished POR2 so I have a high tolerance

Im gonna buy this one, i really am taken by the art style of the game. As I said before, it really gives me the feel of playing the old Myth games at times, which i will always hold very dear. For a game, anyway ='.'=

I bought it.
(I'm from Italy where the game's just been released).
Graphics look good. Music not bad.
Gameplay tends to be a little repetitive.

MY OPINION AFTER FINISHING THE GAME:
1) You kill monsters and sell stuff. Shops never sell something good. What you find is always a little bit deluding…. no really strong weapon or armor. No item customization. Tons of useless items and….. it happens often that normal (white description text) items are better than rare or unique (colored description text) items.
2) Ok…. I've finished the game…. Can I restart it with my character at a higher difficulty level?
ummm… let me see…. no, let me try this… no.
NO. You finishe the game and…. it's OVER!
3) Game saving system….. When you start your saved game and find that you have to kill for the xxxth time the infinite mob of insect like monsters to reach the area quest…… what do you think you feel like?

SO.
Good graphics… not bad music and fx…. not bad character develpoment system…. but the rest is to drop in the trashbean.

Originally Posted by CelesteGB
I liked the feel of it too and hopefully rangers won't get gimped. I always hate when reading up on a game that there aren't any really good bows. I play one anyway though Living on the edge!

Slight thread drift…I was trying to find a good build for Titan Quest and nobody seemed to have any really good builds or good bows to recommend. Wait…I might have found a good build…

Celeste

Ah, Celeste—you play my game, and my style! I heartily recommend the Brigand—it may be the build you're talking about. But if not, max out your Hunter mastery w 2 points into mastery, 1 point into aura skills, then about level ten or twelve, pick up the Rogue mastery, but only a minimal investment in the basics til you totally max Hunter. Here's a link to a build guide—there ARE some excellent bows—I'm using the Bow of the Nile right now and it rocks.
Link:http://db.gamefaqs.com/computer/dosw…uest_class.txt